Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Lightly-raced five-year-old Otis bungled the start in his first appearance in a stand before producing a superb performance to win the $20,250 Smooth FM Perth On Digital Radio Handicap at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
It was a triumph for Banjup trainer-reinsman Dylan Egerton-Green, who produced Otis in splendid condition for his comeback race after an 18-month absence during which he recovered from a fractured pedal bone in his nearside front leg, an injury he sustained in a track workout at Byford.
Otis was bred by Steve Johnson, who races him in partnership with his daughter Charlotte, who has a special bond with the gelding and feeds him apples every Sunday.
The family was devasted when Otis was injured, with Steve Johnson saying that he took the horse straight to hospital “when I basically had to carry him, a 500-kilogram horse, on my shoulder.”
Johnson describes Otis as a lovely horse and a beautiful kind horse. But he became unhappy when he was cooped up as he recovered from his hoof injury, and it was then decided to geld him.
“We gave him plenty of time off to recover,” said Johnson, who bred his dam Janet Gai and her dam Endless Journey.
The win on Friday night helped the Johnson family to overcome the extreme disappointment of two-year-old Rushie, a full-brother of Otis who fractured a bone in a knee after winning a seven-horse Byford trial on April 16 by 53 metres, rating 1.57.2 after a final quarter of 28.4sec.
“Rushie was unbelievable in the trial,” said Johnson. “He is now in the nursery at home and hopefully he will be fully recovered in 12 months. Trevor Lindsay did a great job in screwing the knee back together.”
Otis now has had 31 starts for ten wins, 13 placings and $108,063 in prizemoney.
He was an $8 chance on the fixed market and $7 on the tote when he lined up on the 10m line in Friday’s event. He galloped badly and settled down about 60m behind the early leader Deeorse.
His task looked almost impossible after the $1.90 favourite Taking the Miki surged to the front 600m after the start, with Otis in tenth position and many lengths behind the frontrunner. However, Egerton-Green did not panic, and he sent Otis forward with a strong three-wide burst at the bell to move to the breeze with 500m to travel.
Otis led narrowly at the 250m and went on to beaty Taking the Miki by a half-neck after final quarters of 28.7sec. and 29.1sec.